The present invention relates to: a relay device for relaying a light signal received from a remote operation device for remotely operating an external apparatus; and a speaker apparatus including the relay device.
Also in ordinary households, speakers have recently been connected to AV (Audio Visual) equipment such as television sets or players in many cases in order to reproduce realistic sounds. As an example of such speakers, a so-called “bar speaker”, used by being placed in front of a television stand, has previously been proposed. The bar speaker is formed so that a plurality of speakers are arranged in a single housing having a bar-like shape. However, a television set is often provided at its lower part with alight receiver for receiving an infrared ray signal (hereinafter referred to as “infrared rays”) outputted from a remote control device (hereinafter referred to as a “remote control”); hence, when the bar speaker is placed in front of the television set, the light receiver is hidden by the bar speaker, resulting in a problem that the television set cannot receive infrared rays from the remote control.
JP-A-09-275591 discloses a system capable of operating electronic equipment located at a position where a signal from a remote control does not reach the electronic equipment. The system disclosed in JP-A-09-275591 is configured so that a relay device (which may also be referred to as a “repeater device”) for relaying a signal from the remote control is interposed between the remote control and AV equipment such as a television set and a VCR. Upon transmission of a signal from the remote control to the relay device by a user, the relay device transmits the signal, received from the remote control, to the AV equipment. Thus, even when the remote control and the AV equipment are located far away from each other, the user can operate the AV equipment by using the remote control.
However, the system disclosed in JP-A-09-275591 has problems that the relay device for relaying infrared rays must be prepared in addition to the bar speaker, and placement thereof cannot be easily carried out.